Chris Gomez presents... ENGINE ALPHA

I found this video on YouTube about a soon-to-be first-time dad going through the motions of preparing for well... being a first-time dad.

The Google Search guys have made some really clever videos in the past for their Google Search Stories series, and this one is funny and heartwarming at the same time.

Personally, I would stop at one, but hey, with Google search, anything can happen and plans can change. :)

Enjoy the video.

The cool people at Skype should do more fun videos like this really cool spoof of "New York" by Jay-Z ft Alicia Keys. It will help them stay connected with the young and the tech folk audience.

I thought the guy rapping was funny, but when the young lady doing AK, came on I couldn't stop laughing. Funny as hell. I'd hire her for my next short film in a heartbeat. Then again I'm in Singapore, so I may not be able to hire her anytime soon. Can someone hire her for their next short film, if she fits the part? I think she played AK pretty well, and if the voice we heard came from her pipes give her a recording contract, dammit!

Enjoy!

Thanks...






...to my buddy @yaoquan for info abt this video.
BTW, @yaoquan is the young, good-looking founder of the online events management tool, FlickEvents.com (If you're female and single, let me know, and I'll connect you with him.)

The only instruction for this is...

...just look at the + that's right in the middle of the pink dots arranged in a circular arrangement. Focus on that + for awhile, and you will see something happen.

Image credit: Found on Toadstool

The pink dots!

They, they... they disappear!

OK, back to work.

This is a really cool video using the voices of the characters from the film "The Matrix", and Lego bricks.

The year 2010 does look like the year of tablet computing, especially after the iPad changed the course of history with its release not too long ago. Already we're seeing "iPad killers" hitting the market, although how well these will do against Apple's latest brainchild remains to be seen.

But what DOES it take to stand up to the iPad? Many are expecting the darned thing to flop at the market after its rather underwhelming debut (and after the Internet began buzzing about a rumored "iPad mini," to be named the "iTampon").

Then again, it's Apple we're talking about. It's marketing ideas are more than enough to make up for the iPad's many limitations. And I'm willing to bet if you ask people about their choice of tablet/e-readers, one of two people are going to want one with an Apple logo at the back.

I just read about the latest e-reader to hit the market, the ASUS DR-900. The DR-900 is ASUS's first-ever e-book reader, and most of its bells and whistles are meant to shine where iPad's fall short. But is it enough to woo e-book fans?

Networking, check. The DR-900 has both Wi-Fi and 3G. And it's got enough battery life to let you read 20 average novels when wireless is turned off.

Storage, so-so. It only has 2 to 4GB worth of storage, but comes with an SD card slot.

Form factor, disappointing. I doubt anything's going to match up to the iPad's sex appeal anytime soon, but ASUS could have at least tried to make the DR-900 ergonomic. All of its buttons are on the right and bottom-right sides, which obviously favors right-handed e-book fans.

Another problem is its feature set -- it looks to be much more powerful than the iPad. That may seem like a good thing, but when you have to price your product any higher than the leading device in the market, you're 99% doomed to fail.

So yes, it's likely to be priced lower than the iPad -- although we don't know much about pricing and availability at this point.

We'll have to admit, Apple really knows how to corner the market with a so-so device. It'll be interesting to see other tablets, tablet-laptops, and e-readers try to enter the already-saturated market and knock the iPad off its lofty pedestal, and believe me, there'll be lots before Fall rolls around.

The world watched in shock as Chile was hit by an earthquake 800 times stronger than the one in Haiti -- and it happened even before the sun went up. But while governments around the world scrambled to get moving, social media was already saving lives.

It's amazing what social media can do where traditional media and emergency methods often fall short. While we commend the Chilean people for building strong buildings and having solid disaster control methods in place, we can't help but notice how social media platforms such as Twitter quickly began putting things together again.

Case in point: Sheryl Breuker, who yesterday shared her personal story with Mashable.com. Her sister-in-law was in Santiago, Chile when the earthquake struck, and there was no way of getting in touch with her. Most communication lines were cut. But a vital line to the Internet stayed on, so they began contacting locals via Twitter.

Sure enough, just a couple of hours later, a number of locals found Sheryl's sister-in-law, safe and sound. And I'm pretty sure she wasn't the only missing person that Twitter helped track down.

Similarly, Facebook users around the Pacific rim stayed up late that night, tracking the resulting tsunami threat and relaying information hours before their respective government agencies did. Google also launched their "Chile Earthquake Finder" service, allowing users to choose between "I'm looking for someone" and "I have information about someone."

There wasn't much damage caused by the tsunami, but seeing how coastal communities all over the Pacific rim responded by evacuating quickly and systematically made me feel like a proud father.

Social media's role doesn't stop there -- now that Chile is picking up the pieces, heroes all over the world are sending money, aid, and manpower. And I have little doubt that social media is going to play yet another big role when the next natural disaster rolls around.

And I'm also pretty sure that the conservatives will be sitting in their sofas bitching at their TV's every time they see their heads of state offer aid to Chile. They'll still be saying, "Why help Chile? Chile will never help us back! Stop sending aid!"

Oh, let them be idiots. In the meantime, the rest of us will continue using today's tools to help make the world a little better than yesterday -- as they were meant to.